Week 15

I met with the architect to explain the changes we want made to the reproducible design. He said he would get started as soon as he returns from an AutoCAD (Revit) class during 1st week in December. Looks like we're running about one month behind where I was hoping we'd be. I don't expect the floor plans and exterior elevation to be done before end of year. Then the details will have to be done - foundation, roof, electrical, etc. I'm hoping now that architecture package will be done by end of January. We'll see.

I also met with the UBuildIt PM last week. I made a copy of the 14 sheet reproducible design for him to start working up the project costs. Even though the design is only 75% complete he can still use it to come up with a fairly accurate estimate. Once the architect is done a true estimate can be made.

I emailed the North Bend City Water dept to find out about the lifting of the new connection moratorium. I also asked him if it were lifted at end of December, as hoped, when the most likely date that a new connection could be made. He told me no sooner than June 08 because they need to improve the infrastructure first. Well, that pretty much makes the well vs city water decision; we'll have to go with a well because we can't get a, and building permit without running water and June is too late to wait. He also said the connection and fees would run around $5K.

But, I think I will go ahead and add a PVC water line to the utilities trench that runs from the street to the home site, that way we could tie into the city water someday fairly inexpensively if we had to.

So, now I have to add the expense of a well pump, storage tanks, filters, well house, concrete slab to the project, as well as a utility trench and electrical supply from the house to the well house.

I found out that the electric company for the property is PSE. I called to get the costs for running service to the utility pad I'm planning to build down at the front of property. I designed, in AutoCAD, all the utility trenches. The main trench, running from street is 530' long and will be 4' Wide x 4' Deep. It will carry electric, propane, telco and water (for future use; as explained above). I also have a trench running from house to barn carrying electric, propane, telco and water. Plus a trench running from barn to septic, and then the trench running from well to house - it will carry electric from house to well and water from well to house. The electric company had me fill out a service application so that their engineering dept could get the costs for me. They needed a list of the electric requirements, so I put together a spreadsheet containing what I estimate the needs will be - you can see the Excel doc here.

I found out from architect that we have to keep the impermeable surfaces (which is anything but dirt, like asphalt, concrete, gravel - for house foundations, driveways, etc) to under 10000 sqft. Otherwise we have to design and build an elaborate drainage system involving retention ponds and drainage trenches. We have to do the drainage trenches regardless, but the retention ponds would involve some major engineering that would be prohibitively expensive. So, I redesigned the parking area (the driveway portion that is up by house) to be much simpler than the elaborate design I showed a few weeks ago. I got the design down to about 6500 sqft, which leaves around 3500 sqft for house and barn foundations. You can see the new design - including parking, driveway and utility trenches - here.